Arts & Entertainments

A few Law & Order episodes aside, Eddie Hartley’s acting career is a failure. To pay for his wife’s infertility treatments, he sells an old sex tape he made with a now-famous ex-girlfriend, thinking he can keep himself anonymous. But his identity is leaked, and soon Hartley is as famous as he always wanted to be, just for the wrong reasons. In this novel, being a star is like being trapped in a Kafka story. As Beha pushes Hartley through the bizarre mechanics of fame, he brings in everything from religion to social media. It’s a funny, sharp study of celebrity and all the strings that come with it. A-